When a new energy corporation was formed through the merger of nine smaller utilities, electronic documents were found scattered across 20 servers, and countless personal computers. Managers complained that they could not go on leave without getting desperate calls regarding the location of key documents. Something had to be done.

Using a.k.a.® Information Governance Software, commonly known as a.k.a.® 3 to bring together and rationalise the taxonomies and metadata of merging organisations is an enormous time-saver and the most efficient way to achieve quality outcomes for both management and users.

The NSW Department of Industry and Investment evolved from the merger of multiple government agencies, including Agriculture, Energy, Fisheries, Forestry, Mining, and State Development. Each agency brought it’s own classification scheme and retention schedule. These had to be merged into a single harmonised whole and uploaded into the department’s HP TRIM recordkeeping system. A new disposal authority (retention schedule) was also required to cover the new entity.

When the ACT Territory Records Office (TRO) was tasked with developing a whole-of-government classification scheme and retention schedule, they realized that, without suitable tools, the process was going to take several years. However with a.k.a.® as their primary development tool, the TRO team managed to complete most of this task in less than 2 years.